Taiwan-US defense research exchanges have been elevated to a “semi-official” level, the Institute for National Defense and Security Research's annual report to the Legislative Yuan suggested.
The institute was last year invited by the US Indo-Pacific Command to participate in discussions about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military strategy against Taiwan, the report said.
The request indicates the level of importance the US Indo-Pacific Command places on Taiwan’s responses to the changing situation in the Taiwan Strait, the report said.
Photo: Aaron Tu, Taipei Times
This was also highlighted by the institute last year being invited for the first time to trilateral talks with Japanese and US officials, including some from the US Department of Defense’s (DOD) Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
The institute, which is Taiwan’s only official defense think tank, last year also participated in exchanges with think tanks in Australia, Europe, Japan, South Korea, the US and other countries, the report said, adding that those attending the exchanges often included active-duty military personnel and officials.
For example, one of the exchanges the institute joined was an electronic warfare symposium at the invitation of the Association of Old Crows and the US Indo-Pacific Command, the report said.
It also discussed the US redefining information warfare in response to current trends.
DOD officials who attended exchanges discussed in depth whether the US and Japan would intervene in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, how such an intervention would occur and how to send the right signals to deter China from starting a conflict, the report said.
In May last year, the institute joined 12 representatives from the National Security Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations, and the Ministry of National Defense to attend the Global Security Forum organized by the Center for Strategy and International Security.
Participants included Rick Waters, then-US deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of State’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; Rush Doshi, then-China affairs director at the US National Security Council; US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia Michael S. Chase; US Air Force Headquarters Deputy Director for Concepts and Strategy Jessica Powers; and former Royal Australian Air Force general Mark Binskin.
The institute last year also joined a delegation from the defense ministry that attended a military exercise on “gray zone” tactics with the US think tank RAND Corp.
The results of the exercise were released at the Taiwan-US Monterey Talks later in the year.
Last year the first Japan-Taiwan Strategic Dialogue was also held, during which the institute met with retired Japanese generals, as well as high-ranking officials in the Japanese government and NATO.
The institute said that it was “deeply impressed by the scale of exchanges and contacts between Japan and NATO, the linking capabilities between the two, and the depth of mutual understanding on various issues displayed by both sides.”
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘INDISCRIMINATE’: The drastic changes would delay many national projects as well as undermine global confidence in Taiwan’s resolve to defend itself, the premier said The Legislative Yuan yesterday on third reading passed the central government budget for this year, cutting 6.6 percent from the Executive Yuan’s proposed expenditure — the largest in history. The budget proposal, which the Cabinet approved in August last year, set government spending at NT$3.1325 trillion (US$95.6 billion), with projected revenues of NT$3.1534 trillion — both record highs — working out to a surplus of NT$20.9 billion. On Friday last week, the opposition-led legislature voted to cut NT$93.98 billion from the budget’s general provisions. During a 20-hour continuous session from Monday until yesterday morning, they continued to slash the budgets of government agencies,
RSS